Saturday, January 15, 2005

BBC Europhile Bias

Indefatigable campaigner, the Lord Pearson of Rannoch, has recently written to "opinion formers" (we are flattered to be included in the circulation), updating us on his campaign against BBC Europhile Bias. His letter makes interesting reading, extracts from which are reproduced below (I particularly like the fourth paragraph):

During the first five years of our monitoring the BBC, its chairman sent our reports to management, who naturally found them groundless and he wrote back accordingly.

The whole exercise is on www.globalbritain.org, but highlights include a 2:1 bias in favour of Europhile speakers; not a single Labour Eurosceptic being allowed on air in 250 hours monitored during the 1999 European elections; and Gerry Adams being the only "no" campaigner interviewed during the re-run of the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty.

Hutton changed all this and the new chairman, Michael Grade, has not sent us any brush-off letters. Instead he arranged for us to meet most of BBC’s news and news-related editors. Their main problem is that they and their researchers know very little about the detail of our relationship with “Brussels”.

At least one senior editor thought that the Council of Ministers had the monopoly to propose and execute EU legislation, rather than the Commission. This ignorance is inspired by the blind PC belief, held almost universally throughout the Corporation, that the EU is an inevitably good thing, responsible for peace, etc. We are up against a large, self-satisfied and introspective culture.

"So," writes Lord Pearson, "we have decided to fight on one limited by vital front."

Pearson is challenging the soundbite "millions of jobs depend on (or are linked to) our membership of the EU", which has been largely responsible for making the British people fear leaving the EU.

He asks that everyone keeps the pressure on the BBC and makes the effort to complain whenever there is an example of its continuing bias – especially "millions of jobs".

We wish Lord Pearson well in his campaign, and commend our reader to the Global Britain web site (link above).